Jersey Roots is a look at the history of Monmouth and Ocean counties. Have a local historical topic you would like more information about? Email Contact Erik Larsen at elarsen@app.com.

This month marks the 20th anniversary of the famous New Jersey rat slaying case, in which a Union County man was prosecuted for bludgeoning to death a rodent that he had caught nibbling on his beloved tomato garden back in 1994.

Frank Balun, 69, of Hillside admitted he beat the rat to death after first catching it in a squirrel trap in his backyard. When it poked its nose out of the cage, he gave it several whacks over its skull with a broom handle, which ultimately proved fatal.

The man who went after Balun like the French Inspector Javert pursued Jean Valjean in Les Misérables was Lee Bernstein, a captain in the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Bernstein was also the longtime executive director of the Associated Humane Societies of New Jersey, which on the Jersey Shore operates the Popcorn Park Zoo in Lacey.

I first met Bernstein in his cluttered office at the zoo in 2002, while I was working on a series about animal cruelty for the Asbury Park Press. Though Bernstein had become a national punch line in the summer of 1994 for his dogged prosecution of Balun, his sense of righteousness about that case had not softened during those eight years.

"How's your stomach?" he asked me. "I want you to see something."

Bernstein flipped open his wallet and produced a photo bearing the remains of the masticated rat.

"It was a living thing; it has a right to live out its life cycle," Bernstein insisted to me 12 years ago. "The rat is a very valuable creature. ... Experimentation on the rat has led to medical breakthroughs, you follow me? People don't realize they owe the improved quality of their health to the rat."

But for then-Union County Prosecutor Andrew Ruotolo, Bernstein was a national embarrassment. As the chief law enforcement officer in Union County, Ruotolo wanted the charges dropped and they were eventually dismissed by the municipal court judge in Hillside.

Today, Ruotolo's son and namesake has produced a short documentary film about that case called "The Rat Slayer of Hillside, NJ." Andrew Ruotolo III, 29, is in the process of raising $5,000 through the fundraising website Kickstarter to secure the license to use various archival news footage that he needs to complete the project. As of Thursday afternoon, Ruotolo had raised $4,510 with 11 days to go.

"The story spread like wildfire, escalating into an out-of-control circus," said Ruotolo, who was 9 years old when his father was forced to muzzle Bernstein. "While Balun was heralded a hero, Bernstein was lampooned on late-night shows, chastised in editorials, abandoned by animal-rights advocates and targeted by protesters."

One of the things about Bernstein that the younger Ruotolo learned, which moved him, was Bernstein kept that photo of the slaughtered rat from Hillside in his wallet until the day he died.